white spruce

noun

1

: any of several spruces

especially : a widely distributed spruce (Picea glauca) of coniferous forests of Canada and the northern U.S. that has short stiff blue-green needles and slender cones see cone illustration

2

: the wood of a white spruce

especially : the light pale tough straight-grained wood of the common white spruce (Picea glauca) used especially for construction and as a source of paper pulp

Examples of white spruce in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Lauren Owens Lambert/Reuters/File Of particular interest to him has been the dwarf mistletoe plant, which has wreaked havoc on the island’s white spruce trees. —Jennifer Wolcott, The Christian Science Monitor, 19 Mar. 2025

In its caterpillar form, the spruce budworm eats away at the needles of white spruce and balsam fir. —Jimmy Lovrien, Twin Cities, 23 May 2025

But since the decline of white spruce forests, deciduous trees, such as birch, aspen, and maple, have replaced them. —Jennifer Wolcott, The Christian Science Monitor, 19 Mar. 2025

Evergreens in this forest also include white pine and white spruce. —Drake Bentley, Journal Sentinel, 28 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1731, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for white spruce

• disabuse
• introduce
• reproduce
• abstruse
• abuse
• adduce
• atreus
• caboose
• cayuse
• conduce
• deduce
• diffuse